Yaalk

Resting in the Cradle of Yaalk, Yaalk itself is a nation of nomads and scholars. Thinly populated, the land is richly fertile yet insufferably hot. The climate is often blamed for why so few have tried to conquer the Cradle, and why those that do always seem to fail or give up. Others point to the Shadowgate Mountains to the east or the Orvyx Mountain Range to the west, and the devils that supposedly live there. Yaalk has only four major settlements: the northern towns of Murtius and Politer, the Visrite-refining city of Ulwakha, and Aqmiah, home of the Great Academy of Yaalk. For over six-hundred years, Yaalk has had no official state or ruler. Despite this, it has ultimately repelled all attempts at conquest, both from the Mornals to the north and even by Zalja itself, whose fifth and final crusade was a failed attempt to seize the region. In the absence of any such ruler, most outsiders look to Aqmiah City and its Academy as the default authority, though the sagai themselves reject any such attempts to empower them over their fellows.